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Where the streets have no cars

New York and San Francisco call it Sunday Streets, and Portland residents know the concept as Sunday Parkways.

By Tess KalinowskiTransportation reporter

Thu., June 25, 2009

New York and San Francisco call it Sunday Streets, and Portland residents know the concept as Sunday Parkways.

Now Vancouver is joining the growing number of North American cities declaring car-free Sundays. Its new Summer Spaces program will close off four neighbourhoods to cars to create 20 car-free routes on Sundays in July and August.

The idea of reinventing street space for pedestrians and bikes is an offshoot of the original Ciclovia, which started in Bogota, Colombia, in the 1980s.

With a large part of its population living in poverty and little public park space, Bogota began converting car space to public space on Sundays, eventually closing off 120 kilometres of streets and drawing millions of residents outdoors.

Vancouver's Summer Spaces is about social inclusion and the environment, said Andrea Reimer, the "green" city councillor who championed the idea.

"It allows you to test-drive the (car-free) lifestyle," she said.

Although Summer Spaces is likely to result in a lively street atmosphere, it is not a festival, said Reimer.

"Mostly what you'll see is what you see in Europe and Eastern American cities – people sitting in cafés and families walking in safety. The idea is not aimed particularly at cyclists, but at pedestrians, who will be able to feel safe walking in the street," she said.

"It's my strong hope that this will just become normal and we'll have other communities lined up saying, `Why can't we do this?'"

Where Vancouver had nine neighbourhoods vying for the Summer Spaces program, Toronto has just one. Kensington Market is the only community here that has asked for a car-free designation, city officials say. It will be closed to cars on seven days between May 31 and Oct. 25 this year.

The Toronto area hasn't found a political champion for the car-free Sunday concept, says Gil Penalosa, of Walk and Bike for Life in Mississauga. Yet in a time of economic restraint, there is no cheaper or more effective way to encourage fitness than allowing pedestrians and cyclists unimpeded access to the street, he said.

"This is more important than the shovel-ready projects Prime Minister Stephen Harper is talking about."

The idea of car-free zones – which Penalosa suggests might work on Yonge St. or on the lakefront in Burlington, Port Credit or Oakville – isn't the same as closing off a road for a charity run. Traffic could still flow through the intersections, with both pedestrians and cars obeying the lights.

Unlike marathons or special events, car-free streets offer an automotive respite for everyone, regardless of age or fitness level.

But the zone has to be attractive and exciting, says Penalosa. People don't want to come out to boring, ugly streets.

San Francisco's Sunday Streets program, now in its second year, has "brought the idea of temporary car-free space into the mainstream, which is something I didn't expect to see in my lifetime," said organizer Susan King of Livable City, a group that promotes transportation alternatives and land use.

The ideal length for a car-free zone is about 6.5 kilometres, she said.

"It gives you long enough to ride if you want to move your legs, it's short enough you can cover the whole thing on foot with a leisurely stroll."

Community consensus is critical to making car-free Sundays work, said King. Once people are accustomed to the notion, organizers hope to extend the car-free hours.

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